An illegal immigrant who had been waiting nearly two years for a deportation hearing when he drunkenly crashed into a car carrying three Catholic nuns was convicted Monday of felony murder.
Prince William County Circuit Court Judge Lon Farris found 24-year-old Carlos A. Martinelly Montano guilty in the Aug. 1, 2010, crash that left Sister Denise Mosier, 66, dead and two other nuns badly injured.
The crash sparked outcry over the Department of Homeland Security’s deportation proceedings. Martinelly Montano, who was smuggled to the United States from Bolivia as a child and had two previous drunken driving convictions, had been detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement ?– but was released pending a long-delayed deportation hearing.
| Timeline |
| July 2007: Carlos A. Martinelly Montano is arrested for driving while intoxicated in Prince William County. |
| October 2008: Martinelly Montano is arrested in a second DWI case. He is detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but is released pending a deportation hearing. |
| August 2010: Martinelly Montano kills a Benedictine nun and injures two others in a head-on crash in Bristow. |
| October 2011: Martinelly Montano pleads guilty to five charges related to the crash and is convicted of felony murder. |
| Source: Court records, ICE |
Before the three-hour trial began, Martinelly Montano pleaded guilty to five other charges: two counts of maiming resulting from driving while intoxicated, driving on a suspended or revoked license, involuntary manslaughter and a third DWI within five years.
His lawyers argued that the crash did not involve malice, an element of the more-serious felony murder charge. That offense is defined as an unintentional killing committed during another felony crime.
“Negligence does not reach the level of malice,” defense attorney Dimitri Willis said.
But Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert said Martinelly Montano — whose blood-alcohol level of 0.20 was two-and-a-half times the legal limit — should have known he couldn’t operate a car safely and his drunk driving was “without a doubt, the cause of the death.”
Farris agreed, saying that drunk driving was “inherently dangerous” and it was “foreseeable” that a serious accident could occur.
A Prince William County police crash investigator said there were about 20 beer cans, including one that was open and cold, in Martinelly Montano’s vehicle after the crash.
The two nuns who survived the crash, who are both in their 70s, testified about their injuries. Sister Charlotte Lange said she had a metal plate inserted into her right leg, which is now about an inch shorter than her left. Sister Connie Ruth Lupton spent four months in the hospital and suffered 14 broken bones — including a severed thumb — and memory loss.
“I haven’t any memory of that day or the next two-and-a-half months,” she said.
Lawyers involved in the case said it was the first time drunk driving had been the underlying offense in a felony murder in Prince William County. Martinelly Montano could receive up to 70 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 3.
There has been fallout from the high-profile collision.
Last year, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell ordered the state Department of Motor Vehicles to stop accepting a federal work authorization card — the document Martinelly Montano used to get an identification card — as proof of legal status.
In August, Prince William County sued DHS for information on whether the 4,000 illegal immigrants the county has arrested and handed over for deportation have been removed from the country.
